The Education Impact Fund (EIF) is advancing ECMC Group’s mission by building a $250M evergreen portfolio of early and growth stage companies that will improve education outcomes for underserved learners and advance the training of America’s workforce. We aim to build an inclusive, efficacious, and sustainable US education and training ecosystem by investing in ventures with significant potential for both impact and financial returns. To that end, it is important for us to understand both the primary and secondary effects our portfolio is having across the landscape and explore the role we can play in accelerating that impact.
While this report is, in part, a measuring stick for our fund, meant to ensure our dollars are indeed going toward impactful outcomes, it is not our primary goal. Primarily, we hope to use this report to elevate the laudable work being done daily by the purposeful founders and companies we’re investing in. By doing so, we endeavor to amplify robust, data - driven impact narratives that demonstrate efficacy and compel other investors, funders, and stakeholders to embrace these innovative solutions to pressing education and workforce challenges. Through this lens, we believe we can best support our portfolio companies’ impact visions and the fulfillment of ECMC Group’s impact objectives.
Our education and workforce landscape continues to strain amidst many challenges, including unprecedented macroeconomic conditions, labor and budgetary pressures, learning loss, and shifting sentiments around the value of higher education. Colliding with this dynamic landscape is a momentous influx of powerful new technologies, such as generative AI, with the potential, if managed ethically and responsibly, to unlock accessible and efficacious learning models like never before.
Thus far in 2023, nearly every governor’s State of the State address has identified opportunities to support innovative postsecondary learning models and invest in
more effective career pathways. 1 According to World Economic Forum (WEF) research, 81% of companies expect to adopt education and workforce technologies to help deliver more dynamic learning environments and take advantage of opportunities for human - plus - machine productivity gains arising from the AI revolution. 2
Still, we are at an inflection point where productivity and access are only part of the solution. Institutions must address the mental health crises that disproportionately deter BIPOC learners from completing degree programs. 3 Employers must be thoughtful about establishing a sense of purpose and belonging to retain workers, particularly the frontline workers who are most likely to churn because of a lack of support and development. 4
Looking forward, we are driven by opportunities for EIF and the ECMC Group to lean in further. In addition to supporting underrepresented learners, we recognize and are intentional about our platform’s capacity to provide much - needed access to capital for diverse founders in a venture capital (VC) environment where female founders and founders of color continue to see barriers to accessing capital. 5 In addition to capital, we are investing in resources to help our portfolio companies accelerate the impact of current solutions and employ rigorous approaches to quantifying how they are changing outcomes for underserved learners.
We are grateful for the opportunity to work with such a committed group of management teams, fund managers, co - investors, and experts. With your support, we will continue to pursue our mission of improving access and outcomes for underserved learners.
We are undergoing structural labor market disruption…
…while workers don’t have the requisite skills,
23%
Of job churn will be driven by the mass adoption of AI
w ith WEF estimating 40% of all w orking hours could be impacted by large language models (LLMs). 1 This accounts for a loss of 83 million jobs and the emergence of 69 million new jobs over the next five years.
<50%
Of workers have access to adequate training opportunities
but 60% of workers will require training before 2027, with the highest priority on increasing analytical and critical thinking, as well as how to leverage AI and big data to augment their work. 1
and the ROI of traditional higher ed is in question.
Students are beginning to vote with their feet…
41%
Of college grads age 22 to 27 are underemployed
with research showing that ~70% of underemployed grads remain in this position five years into their career. This problem is acute for low - income and first - gen students who have limited social capital. 2
20%
Decrease in students considering a college degree
while on an inflation - adjusted basis, the net price of college has been falling on average over the last decade, 68% of students cite the cost of education as an important barrier. 3
…putting U.S. economic production at risk as the talent gap persists.
$162B
Projected loss in revenue due to the high-tech talent gap4
placing an onus on employers, educators and the government to collectively innovate across the landscape to remove barriers for future generations of learners and workers.
5,6
Learners and workers face a rapidly changing economy and job market yet have limited access to training and reskilling opportunities that deliver on outcomes
Meanwhile, investment is lagging, with education accounting for ~7% of GDP but only ~2% of VC fundingWorld Economic Forum: “The Future of Jobs” report (2023); (2) SHRM Report: “Building Social Capital to Reduce Underemployment” (2022); (3) ECMC Group: “Question The Quo” report (2022);
60%
Of college students meet the criteria for at least one mental health problem1
COVID - 19, hybrid learning, and increased technology usage has exacerbated student isolation and mental health issues, amplifying the need for enhanced community and peer - to - peer support networks .
40%
Projected annual growth of generative AI in the education market2
Generative AI holds transformative potential for education, particularly by leveraging AI to make personalized learning experiences more accessible and scale high - quality instruction . But can it be deployed with the necessary accuracy, transparency and accountability?
33%
Increase in job postings on LinkedIn over the last six months that do not require a four-year degree3
Skills-First
As education providers move away from standardized assessments and employers shift hiring requirements from degrees to skills, the market will require dynamic skills assessment and discovery platforms that connect rising and overlooked talent with high - demand job pathways .
+$19k
Responsible Generative AI
Work-Integrated Learning
Increase in income for bachelor’s degree recipients who experience work-integrated learning (WIL)4
Traditional educational systems are falling short in delivering skills with real- time market relevance, providing opportunity for platforms that bridge academia and industry via experiential learning opportunities .
Looking forward, we’re particularly interested in solutions to improve student mental health, access to personalized learning at scale, and skills-based assessment and hiring
ECMC Group’s Education Impact Fund (EIF) is building a $250M evergreen portfolio of mission-aligned impact investments into companies and investment funds, including 19 direct investments into companies since 2019
$105M Total Committed
14 Total Funds
43% 26%
Learner pain points and impact opportunities across postsecondary and employment drive our investment thesis and areas of focus
Impact Themes Target Outcomes
Unlocking Equitable Pathways
• Access to Quality Programs
• Affordability
• Matriculation Rates
Revolutionizing Skill Development
• Credentials of Value
• Measurable Skill Gains
• Program ROI
Removing Barriers to Completion
• Graduation Rates
• Student Persistence
• Time to Completion
Fueling Career Success
• Placement Rates
• Promotion Rates
• Wage Uplift
As our direct EIF portfolio grows, it is deeply impacting education access and outcomes for millions of diverse and traditionally underserved learners across the postsecondary and workforce landscape
Springboard provides online, mentor-guided courses to upskill early to mid-level professionals in high-demand fields such as data science, UX design and digital marketing. Its approach combining personalized mentorship, career counseling and a human-centric learning experience promotes higher course completion and job placement rates.
Pathstream is a career mobility platform that empowers frontline workers to advance their careers by uncovering transferable skills, working with a coach to select their best-fit career path and completing targeted upskilling programs in a low-risk learning environment.
Gautam Tambay Co - founder & CEO
“Outdated educational requirements are biased in favor of those who can afford traditional degree programs. At Springboard, we're leveling the playing field by enabling people of all backgrounds to participate in the digital economy.”
Eleanor Cooper Co - founder & CEO“For millions of frontline workers, the process of advancing their career is chaotic, seemingly arbitrary and ultimately broken. Pathstream is about changing that experience partnering with companies to transform their dead-end frontline jobs into career-building opportunities worth staying for.”
Interplay Learning provides immersive online and VR simulation-based training for essential skilled trades jobs that is creating better learning and career pathways for middle skills workers in fields such as HVAC, facilities maintenance, electrical, plumbing, solar and others.
Clusiv is the first online job readiness and vocational training platform specifically designed to remove the accessibility and training barriers that have traditionally held back the blind and visually impaired community, empowering them to gain the skills needed to enter the modern workforce.
& CEO
“Skilled workers have been overlooked by EdTech innovation.... Every one of these employers and schools need to recruit people to come in and learn a trade, and if they don't have a digital offering, it’s just not really appealing to this generation. These jobs are in every single community, and they're in need.”
“Nearly 70% of the blind and visually impaired workforce is unemployed, mostly due to the lack of support systems like training and workplace accommodations that will help our community reach economic mobility. The goal is to make people who are blind or visually impaired in the workforce a norm and not the exception.”
Acadeum is the creator of the largest course-sharing platform that matches a vast catalog of existing, high-quality courses from regionally accredited institutions with learners who often struggle to access the classes they need to persist and graduate on time.
Craft is building the critical data layer that assists states, employers and education providers with the measurement, reporting and compliance necessary to run accredited apprenticeship degree programs at scale. Craft's initial market focus is upskilling paraprofessionals to become full-time certified teachers while getting paid.
Dave Daniels CEO
“Today’s learners are older and more likely to be parents or working than at any point in our nation’s history. That new majority of learners are putting pressure on institutions to align course offerings with the realities of their schedules and responsibilities beyond the classroom. We’re building tools to unlock opportunities for these students.”
“Creating affordable pathways to and up through the economy is not only the right thing to do, it is also good business: employers need skilled workers, and the employee of today is much more savvy of their ROI on their training relative to their job.”
Mallory Dwinal- Palisch Founder & CEO
Meet our newest founders and CEOs who are removing barriers to completion and unlocking equitable pathwaysSeries B Invested Q2 '23 Seed Invested Q1 '23
We leverage a three-step approach to identifying, assessing and accelerating impact that hinges on partnering collaboratively with our portfolio companies to support them in achieving their impact goals
Identify the core problem and what’s unique about the company’s solution, ensure alignment between impact and financial success and unite on a long-term vision
During diligence and postinvestment, measure impact along three core factors: reach, efficacy and scalability
Post-investment, work with portfolio companies to identify opportunities to support the realization and acceleration of impact outcomes
Before entering diligence, we work with founders to understand their impact vision and align on a clear and compelling impact narrative that informs our evaluation of impact
Vision
What is the long-term impact that the company seeks to achieve, and how will this vision inform decision
Problem
What is the core problem the company is targeting, and why is it urgent and relevant?
Approach
How is the company solving this problem in a compelling and differentiated way?
Alignment
What elements of the business model and leadership ensure a virtuous cycle of impact and financial outcomes?
During our diligence process, we evaluate a company’s impact using a three-factor framework, assessing each element based on the company’s current outcomes data.
We also use this framework to identify potential opportunities to improve a company’s impact outcomes, either by enhancing metrics/analytics or specific impact initiatives.
Using the initial assessment as a roadmap, we work to support our companies in advancing their impact analytics and outcomes.
The size of the impact opportunity and the company's current and potential impact on underrepresented or marginalized populations
• Current learners reached
• Total number of addressable learners
• Demographic composition
The research and data points that validate the company’s ability to deliver long-term outcomes aligned to its impact vision
• Evidence-backed pedagogy
• Surveys/feedback
• User engagement data
• Quantitative studies & RCTs
The company's ability to drive operating leverage while maintaining or improving its impact outcomes over time
• Capital efficiency metrics (unit economics, burn multiple, etc.)
• Cost to serve/deliver outcomes
Dedicated team resources to support a robust evaluation of impact and help identify opportunities to support and accelerate our portfolio’s impact goals
Leverage the ECMC Group brand and reach to provide a platform for companies to articulate and share their impact
Our team is working with Interplay Learning to help design and launch multiple VR-driven pilots with employers, public libraries and workforce development organizations. In addition to donating VR headsets, ECMC Education is providing career services support to ensure learners are prepared to enter the skilled trades workforce.
In partnership with gener8tor, ECMC Group and ECMC Foundation sponsor an annual conference providing our portfolio with unique exposure to a diverse investor base and a platform to showcase the key issues they are impacting across the postsecondary and workforce landscapes.
The EIF team has helped facilitate conversations and partnerships with various leaders within the ECMC Group network to support our portfolio’s operational and financial strategies. From government affairs to technology leaders, we seek to provide direct access to the knowledge and resources necessary for our portfolio’s success.
While our work is still nascent, we are committed to delivering tailored support toward our portfolio companies’ impact goals, leveraging the ECMC Group platform to amplify their stories and facilitating access to ECMC Group's network of experts in education and
portfolio companies1 saw a ~73% increase in reach2 YOY, serving ~6M learners in 2022
~48k Tier 2/Tier 3 multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) students served
~27k Active licenses
~25k Students served
~2k Teacher apprentices
5,500+ Impact originations
~33k Learners seeking economic mobility
421k+ Caregivers served
2M+ Pell Grant students served
5,5K+ Minority students served 1.7K+ Supervisees in mental shortage areas
~30K First-gen students served
~24K Frontline workers served
10 States vendorized ~61K Skilled trades learners served 850+ Apprentices served
55 Higher ed institutions served
50% Of learners are taking courses to start or grow their business
39% Of learners report generating additional income
84% Completion rate
95% Of students showed gains in confidence, coping and persistence
On average, 20k mentee/mentor pairs connect three or more times a quarter
Matched students were 6% more likely to be retained than their non-matched peers
~60% Completion rate
944k+ Hours of training completed
Frontline workers using Pathsream saw a $25k average salary increase
~97k CEU credits and 400+ industry certifications obtained
~6,000 Impact origination loans disbursed
2x ROI on program costs and 92% of loans current on payments
~75% of EIF portfolio companies1 saw an improvement in efficacy metrics YoY, demonstrating their compounding ability to deliver high-impact, long-term outcomes
Improved configuration cost and cheaper delivery of hardware
Improved user experience to facilitate membership renewals
Reduced platform hosting costs
Optimized delivery costs by redesigning the frontline experience
Aligned resources to most critical objectives
Increased gross margins by 9% while expanding access to APDS tablets
LTV:CAC ratio improved by 23% while sustaining the percentage of users who increased quality of life
Maintained high gross margins while expanding coverage of mental health shortage areas
Increased gross margins by 14% while maintaining $25k average wage uplift
Improved burn multiple by ~2x while improving test results 3–5x the national average of other test prep solutions
~63% of EIF portfolio companies1 maintained or improved key economic efficiency metrics while sustaining or increasing their impact on learners and workers
Incarcerated individuals struggle to get the training and skills that will lead to high-quality employment once they are released and empower them to successfully navigate the challenges of reentry. When these individuals receive quality employment, they are 36% less likely to recidivate within three years of release.1 While AWS is committed to investing significant resources to provide free cloud computing training to justice-impacted individuals throughout the country,2 it requires deep partnerships to deploy the certification classes across jurisdictions.
APDS partnered with AWS to provide access to the cloud skills training and cloud certification exam preparation material through the tablets they’ve deployed across 21 jurisdictions. In addition to program access, incarcerated learners were supported with job-readiness training and online mock interviews.
“I’d never done anything with a computer besides video games, typing papers in college and downloading music on an iPad…. Receiving the AWS Cloud Certification means the most to me because it will open a new chapter in life that I would never have thought was possible.”
85% 20
Of participants who passed and received their AWS Cloud Certification States identified for expansion of AWS certification program
Connecting students to relevant peers is an important initiative at FAU, as the institution recognized that certain populations (first-gen, commuter and male) were less engaged and therefore less likely to persist from fall to spring. However, FAU lacks the capacity to manually match 1,000+ students and the technology to account for aspects of identity, affinity and life experiences.
FAU partnered with Mentor Collective to create a larger-scale peer support network to ensure that first-year and transfer students had the incentive to get involved and utilize campus resources beyond orientation. This enabled FAU to engage and support students who often fall below the radar of institutional analysis and advising but regularly face psychosocial and academic barriers in isolation that lead to attrition.
1
“Being able to track trends in participation, engagement, conversation topics and flags during the year helps us understand the issues our students face and provide support as necessary to the mentors and the mentees. The realtime tracking allows us to make shifts throughout the year to adapt the mentoring experience to the realities of the student experience.”
First-generation students participated and logged approximately 7,000 conversations with mentors
Insights shared to help administrators direct students to appropriate resources
First-gen, minority students were 4% more likely to be retained than their non-matched peers
UBS believes that different backgrounds and perspectives will pay dividends for the company and accelerate growth while also impacting career outcomes for diverse students. While racial diversity has improved in recent years, there is still a large gap between the percentage of white and BIPOC workers in the financial services industry.1
UBS partnered with Mentor Spaces to empower mentors to engage with the Tomorrow’s Talent program2 by facilitating efficient scheduling and establishing profiles to support matchmaking. After launching a series of company learning events on the platform and hosting information sessions about the program, Mentor Spaces helped match candidates across their university and nonprofit partners based on their interests in certain roles and departments, as well as their goals for the experience.
“We mapped a plan for my mentee to accomplish her career goals. I can see her confidence increasing, and I feel very valued for the impact that I am making.”
—UBS Mentor
Number of underrepresented mentees participating in UBS’s Tomorrow’s Talent program who were supported by 46 UBS mentors
Pinnacle Treatment Centers experienced a dramatic change in its workforce during the pandemic. As more therapists left the workforce, it became more difficult to fill job vacancies. Simultaneously, the number of people seeking help for addictions doubled. To recruit and retain workers, Pinnacle needed to improve the value proposition it provided to therapists, with many turning down job offers because they lacked an offering for clinical supervision to open a pathway to advanced licensure.
Pinnacle partnered with Motivo to fill the need for supervisors, which helped improve the employee experience and providing access to pre-credentialed counselors. Motivo provided a solution that aligned with the various types of licensures needed in a cost-effective and flexible way that allowed Pinnacle to scale counselor support across the company. In doing so, Pinnacle was able to address the churn in the workforce by targeting an entirely new source of counselors, ultimately removing patients from waiting lists.
“In the past, we’ve had to turn people away or had candidates reject our offers because we weren’t able to provide them with a stipend or provide supervision directly. So has Motivo helped with that? Yes. 100%.”
—Director of Talent Acquisition, Pinnacle Treatment Centers
Of open counselor positions were filled within less than a year, driven by an 8% reduction in vacancies
Reduction in the time from posting position to new hire start date
Increase in voluntary retention
Vision Prepare 100,000 justice-impacted individuals to secure a living-wage job post-incarceration by 2025 Problem
Over 600,000 people transition from prison to society each year,1 but many lack the requisite education and training that would address the high unemployment rates faced by these individuals and drastically reduce their likelihood of recidivism.2
Harris Ferrell CEO Arti Finn Co - Founder & Chief Strategy Officer
Headquarters New York, NY
Theme Revolutionizing Skill Development
Stage Series C
APDS’s platform provides justice-impacted individuals with the tools and education resources necessary for building career readiness skills that will support successful reentry and position them for high-quality employment opportunities.
APDS is a public benefit corporation (PBC) and certified B-Corporation based on a philosophy that never charges incarcerated individuals or their friends and families for its technology or services.
Impact
~27k 139
Incarcerated learners with access to APDS programming Prison facilities using APDS across 21 jurisdictions
62 78%
Facility Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Average percentage of APDS users who continue to engage with programming after receiving tablet
Unlock the Hispanic community’s potential, and turn their interests into income by helping them start a new business or career
Headquarters Coral Gables, FL
Theme Revolutionizing Skill Development
Stage Series A
Over the next decade, the Hispanic community will grow to represent 21% of the workforce. However, this community is overrepresented in industries susceptible to technological disruption and therefore needs better access to skills and training that will meaningfully change their economic mobility.1
Aprende provides access to affordable entrepreneurial, vocational and educational programs that address the unique needs of the Hispanic workforce.
Aprende’s diplomados and platform are intentionally designed with the learner’s experience in mind, ensuring the highest likelihood of completing their courses and achieving their personal learning objectives. Learner success will lead to higher rates of repeat purchases and referrals.
Improve the future of quality healthcare by increasing access to well-trained and compassionate caregivers for elderly Americans
Headquarters Boston, MA
Theme Revolutionizing Skill Development
Stage Series B
While the government and healthcare systems try to redesign treatment and rein in costs through expanding in-home care delivery, this critical workforce experiences high turnover rates since caregivers lack the training to overcome the barriers to remaining in these roles long term.1
CareAcademy provides scalable, mobile-first online training and credentialing to help agencies prepare caregivers for the unique needs of their patients. This helps establish confident and engaged workers who are motivated to grow in their healthcare career.
CareAcademy enables workers to upskill over time, promoting career growth for workers while also improving its customers’ and caregiver employers’ abilities to grow their businesses.
Help every district provide personalized education to their most vulnerable learners in order to drastically improve graduation and matriculation rates
Headquarters Brooklyn, NY
Theme Unlocking Equitable Pathways
Stage Seed
The pandemic revealed a need for meeting students where they are and empowering teachers to address various levels of academic achievement and manage the social-emotional dynamics in the classroom in order to ensure that all student succeed and graduate.1
ChalkTalk streamlines the process of identifying student baselines and structuring customized lesson plans and interventions to help improve all students’ math and ELA achievement.
ChalkTalk’s platform is designed to help teachers achieve a higher return on instruction and, in doing so, provide personalized learning to drive success for all students and help districts reach their literacy and numeracy objectives. Creating this win-win-win outcome should also drive financial success for ChalkTalk over time.
Impact
for FY22. (1) EducationWeek: “The Right MTSS Platform Should Empower Educators” (2023); (2) ChalkTalk Global Impact Study
Remove the barriers between the blind and visually impaired (B/VI) learners and the modern workforce by creating pathways to employment that improve their economic mobility
The U.S. B/VI worker population is subject to high unemployment rates and large wage gaps compared to the overall disabled workforce1 due to a lack of workforce training that provides the skills necessary to access high-quality employment.
Headquarters Austin, TX
Theme Revolutionizing Skill Development
Stage Seed
Clusiv’s platform provides accessible job readiness and vocational training for the B/VI worker population. As the company grows, it will leverage its expertise in accessibility to become the go-to learning management system across the vocational rehab landscape.
Clusiv’s platform is specifically designed to address the digital challenges B/VI workers face when navigating learning environments and obtaining skills, which helps Clusiv serve an untapped workforce and position them as a leader in improving employment outcomes for B/VI workers.
Vision
Enhance the impact of apprenticeship models by providing a data infrastructure that can power 10 million apprenticeship degrees in the United States
Headquarters Nashville, TN
Theme Unlocking Equitable Pathways
Stage Seed
Employers are turning to apprenticeship degrees to address vacancies and establish strong talent pipelines, but despite the amount of federal funding available, they lack the data resources to overcome the administrative challenges of scaling these programs.1
Craft helps employers manage the myriad of data points necessary to access WIOA funding and launch apprenticeship programs. Craft also leverages this data to support state-level labor strategies.
As a co-founder of leading teaching apprenticeship provider, Reach University, CEO Mallory DwinalPalisch recognized data analytics and reporting as an inhibitor to scaling apprenticeships. Craft’s software will provide momentum for apprenticeship programs and help dramatically reduce the cost of obtaining credentials for all apprentices.
Impact
2k 312 33% 95%
168 Days of administrative time saved
Vision
Help millions of students transform from anxiety and doubt to more self-directed and confident human beings who can thrive and succeed
Abby Master Co - Founder & Chief Student Engagement and Product Officer
Headquarters Excelsior, MN
Theme Removing Barriers to Completion
Stage Seed
Over the last several years, the number of adolescent learners experiencing mental health challenges has continued to rise.1 This issue persists as they continue to colleges, with more than 60% of college students meeting the criteria for a mental health problem.2 However, there is a lack of resources and staff to address these issues.3
EmpowerU’s programming consists of daily online lessons that map to the MTSS tiers, coupled with short-form, 1:1 daily and weekly coaching sessions led by licensed therapists.
EmpowerU’s platform is built on the founders’ combined 20+ years as practicing therapists and clinicians. It is centered on personalization for students and a cost-effective therapy model that helps schools serve more students per therapist and maximize their spend on mental health and SEL programs.
Students with access to EmpowerU curricula Completion rate of EmpowerU programs
Of students showed significant goal progress
Of students showed gains in confidence, coping and persistence
Increase the pool of skilled trades workers and improve their economic mobility by dramatically reducing the time to mastery of in-demand skills that lead to high-quality employment
Headquarters Austin, TX
Theme Revolutionizing Skill Development
Stage Series C
The skilled trades industry faces a persistent shortage of workers driven by an aging workforce and lack of interest among younger generations.1
Interplay Learning provides on-demand, immersive learning environments with an extensive catalog that helps employers and workforce development organizations train and upskill trades workers, as well as provides access to digital offerings that help vocational schools attract younger generations and individual learners gain the skills needed to enter an industry.
Interplay Learning’s authoring tool enables it to develop low-cost simulations that provide a costeffective training platform for its customers, helping them scale training programs and increase access to more workers and learners over time. Interplay Learning pairs these simulations with an AI coach and other mentorship supports to ensure learners complete training, ensuring its partners and the individual learners realize their goals and see a return on their investment.
400+ Industry certificates obtained
Vision Drive $1 trillion in economic mobility through college completion and career advancement
Headquarters Boston, MA
Theme Removing Barriers to Completion
Stage Series B
Low-income, minority and first-gen students are the most susceptible to summer melt due to a lack of support when navigating the administrative and financial obstacles to enroll in college and remain enrolled throughout their college careers.1
Mainstay makes it easy for colleges to start and measure meaningful conversations that drive action at scale and ultimately improve student outcomes through an AI-powered educational messaging platform.
Mainstay ensures that its higher education partners are equipped with the tools such as best-practice calendars to successfully increase student engagement. The calendars ensure institutions see a return on their investment in the platform, as increased chatbot engagement continues to show a positive impact on matriculation and retention.
Leverage the power of peer-to-peer engagement to close the equity gap and increase the number of low-income students graduating from college
Headquarters Boston, MA
Theme Removing Barriers to Completion
Stage Series A
Research continues to show that minority students are less likely to complete their degree1 due to a lower sense of belonging2 driven by limited mental health support and a lack of preparation.3 That makes it difficult for these students to persist and complete their degree.
Mentor Collective facilitates large-scale, multi-pronged peer and mentor engagements throughout students' college careers that provide unique insights into how to support students and direct them to the right campus resources to ensure a greater sense of belonging.
Paired with institution-specific program design support, Mentor Collective’s platform allows universities to reach all students, particularly those most vulnerable to drop out or leave, helping improve enrollment and retention strategies.
~5k
Leverage the power of conversations to remove barriers to knowledge and resources that increase the social capital for students of color and improve employment outcomes
Stage Seed
Research shows that a vast majority of jobs are filled through networking,1 but diverse and low-income learners lack access to the relationships and knowledge necessary to obtain high-quality employment and feel confident on the job.2
Mentor Spaces facilitates conversations of students of color and early career professionals with mentors of similar backgrounds employed at notable corporate partners, helping students identify evergreen career opportunities.
Mentor Spaces builds strong partnerships with HBCUs, MSIs and other nonprofit organizations that specifically support students of color, supplying employers with a diverse pipeline and better line of sight to a return on their diversity recruiting efforts.
Impact
85%
Mentees served Of mentees identify as BIPOC Mentor sessions completed, group and 1:1
YoY increase in evergreen career opportunities available to mentees
Of mentees rate an 80% or higher satisfaction level
Reduce the U.S. skills gap and unlock the potential of underserved learners through access to affordable financing
Headquarters Frisco, TX
Theme Unlocking Equitable Pathways
Stage Series C
Only half of the labor force has access to the training programs needed to address the persistent skills gaps in the economy,1 and the cost of postsecondary education and workforce training programs is a considerable barrier to matriculation and completion for underrepresented learners.
Meritize leverages a holistic credit evaluation that includes past academic or military achievements to increase access to financing for skills-based training programs.
Meritize targets learners and educational institutions that traditional lenders such as Sallie Mae won’t serve based on the length of the program or their cosigner requirements. Meritize also looks to partner with institutions with high graduation and completion rates, delivering an attractive ROI for their underserved learners and helping improve loan performance.
Vision Solve the shortage of mental health therapists in the United States
Problem
Rachel McCrickard CEO & Co - Founder
Mike Chen CTO & Co - Founder
Headquarters Atlanta, GA
Theme Removing Barriers to Completion
Stage Seed
Roughly 50% of the U.S. population lives within a mental health workforce shortage area. As a result, nearly 60% of practitioners serving patients with anxiety and depression no longer have openings for new patients.1 Many would-be providers never become licensed due to onerous and costly supervision rules.
Motivo makes it easy for pre-licensed therapists and counselors to get access to clinical supervisors, helping them complete the supervision hours necessary to obtain a license.
By facilitating virtual supervision, Motivo expands the reach of clinical supervisors and enables them to serve therapists living in mental health shortage areas for a fraction of the cost and time it would take through traditional methods, incentivizing more agencies and therapists to utilize the platform.
-50%
Average reduction in supervision costs
Vision Launch the first-ever tech employer consortium that hires apprentices on behalf of its members
Headquarters San Antonio, TX
Theme Fueling Career Success
Stage Seed
Women and people of color make up a very small portion of the U.S. tech labor force.1 Despite an increased focus and investment in diversity initiatives,2 companies struggle to find the diverse talent to fill these gaps as these learners and workers matriculate and complete STEM degrees at a much lower rate.3
NEW Apprenticeship provides pre-apprenticeship training and ongoing student support to reduce the barriers for learners seeking to enter the tech labor force.
NEW Apprenticeship’s pre-apprenticeship training ensures all learners get the necessary preparation to be successful during the apprenticeship program, empowering underrepresented and low-income learners to complete apprenticeship programs, unlocking Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funding for these learners and helping employers realize a return on their talent investments.
Vision
Provide access to career advancement opportunities that result in significant wage uplift for the U.S. frontline workforce
Headquarters San Francisco, CA
Theme Fueling Career Success
Stage Series A
Employers are struggling to retain their frontline workers, largely due to an inability to provide career advancement opportunities and the requisite skill development to ensure these workers have a pathway to long-term career success.1
Pathstream’s platform provides employer-specific career mobility pathways that address the unique needs of the frontline workforce, helping workers set clear goals for career development and target a set of skills that will ultimately lead to significant wage uplift.
Pathstream has designed a product that helps employers create unique programs based on their workforce’s goals and the related skills gaps within the organization, increasing visibility into their internal pipelines and helping them provide the support and mentorship frontline workers need to complete programs that directly lead to advancement opportunities that improve retention, reducing the high cost of turnover.
98%
Of workers hit their career success goals
Empower all students to make informed decisions throughout their learning journeys and equip them with the tools to unlock their full potential and have the best possible experiences and outcomes
Across the higher education landscape, attempts to improve college completion rates have stalled, with research showing that students are earning roughly 75% of the credits they need each semester to remain on track for graduation.1
Headquarters San Francisco, CA
Theme Removing Barriers to Completion
Stage Series A
Stellic’s degree management platform empowers students to choose the best-fit courses and create an optimal plan for graduation, allowing advisors more bandwidth for deeper student support at scale.
Stellic’s platform provides key insights into course and faculty demand. This allows administrators to optimize their resources based on the needs of all learners and proactively identify potential bottlenecks to student success, leading to an attractive ROI on their enrollment and retention strategies.
Impact
